


The Cynn vs Parenthood.

by Dizzydino



Category: White Noise (Webcomic)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adoption, Drama, EVERYONE - Freeform, Family, Fluff, Hawk press has a mouth on him, Humor, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Monsters, Multi, Nonhuman, Other, all the drama, bird butt is a good dad, but she is cute, everyone is gay in some way, how much trouble can one kid course, liya is the only human is this thing so far, lots. - Freeform, may change - Freeform, things may get sweary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2019-09-07 10:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16852636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino
Summary: Running a country is easy compared to looking after a child.Apparently.





	1. Little miracles

White noise fan fiction: The Cynn vs parenthood  
Chapter one: little miracles

The biggest fear for anyone who has children is said children going missing.

One child going missing on there way home from school bad enough, but a whole spate of children going missing in the space of a week?

That was nightmare inducing.

So when series of abductions rocked Edonia, RIT put on the case very quickly. Yesterday quickly.

A trail of missing kids, suspicious produce vans, and the footage from a freshly installed domestic cctv system led them to a small warehouse, set in the far corner of an industrial estate, just outside city limits, which by all means was seemingly abandoned. No lights, no sound. Just the wind, the rain, and the sounds of other businesses going about their day to day business in the back ground.

But, the RIT team was patient. Very patient. Intel said that they buyer was gong to be arriving soon to pick up the live cargo.

And just before sun set, they did.

A white van, displaying the logo of a produce company from the next island over reversed up to the cargo dock, the driver hopping out to open the bay doors and back the van in some more. As they did, RIT moved in closer- stealth was a key factor here. Traffickers liked there emergency teleport spells, and one small slip would be catastrophic.

The two with wings hopped silently onto the roof, finding a skylight, they watched as the traffickers, 5 of them in total, from a range of species, dragged a whimpering line of children out of some storage containers. The children where paraded past the buyer, who inspected them each individually, inspecting there age, breed, and how much they were worth, arguing with the trafficker every now and then over little details.

With each second, RIT crept into position, using hand signals and walkie talkies to communicate and finalise the trap.

Inside the warehouse, Money was estranged.

RIT pounced.

-

“Well, that was easy.” Teige carrol said breezily, pushing the last of the traffickers, and grumpy looking jackalope with a broken antler, into the waiting police riot van. The whole operation had gone down with out a hitch. with the traffickers being taken by surprise, they had had no time to activate any of the teili spells, or to destroy any evidence. They had been tackled, cuffed and had there magic bound in under a minuet buy the 7 strong RIT team, and the buyer had not gotten far, being slammed into the floor by a 6’10 ball of grey fluff and fury called Hawk press the moment they tried to run for the van. The same van that was now loaded on the back of a tow truck, on its way to the local police compound for forensic tests.

They were having a bad day.

Once the prisoners had been bagged and tagged, all eyes when back to the gaggle of children that where now sitting on the cold cement floor, watching there rescuers with looks of awe, tinged with just a little bit of fear.

Captain James Marinos turned to the rest of his team. It was important that this kids where taken to a safe, warm place for medical attention before they were reunited with there families.

“PRESS, CARROL, yes, you two! Keep an eye on these kids. VINCENT! You and Pascelli fetch the Minibus AND TURN THE HEATING ON- not all of us have thick fur to keep us warm. Murry, you go with the cops, fill in any info they need, we will pick you up on our way through. I will call back to base the give them the good news, and tell them to contact parents. NOW SNAP TO IT!”

RIT snapped to it.

~~~~~

Hope and hearth hospital was used to having trafficking victims brought through there doors for treatment, being the largest nonhuman hospital in the symphony archipelago. Once Marinos had given them the heads up to the large group of preteens (there was 15 children in total, aged between 5 and 12) was heading there way, one of the paediatric wards was quickly isolated for the children to reside in. 15 beds, for 15 kids, with a small army of nurses to preform health checks and provide food and cuddles where needed.

It was a small miracle that none of the kids had been hurt physically in any way, apart from some bruises and one damaged ego. They where lucky. Very lucky.

Hawk and Teige where still on kid watch duty, and they both looked rather out of place, in there dark blue uniforms, stormy feathers and inky fur, ageist the bright and cheerful, flowers and happy critter wall murals that set the children wards apart from the rest of the rather bland hospital. The two of them guarded the only door into this particular ward, keeping an eye on the coming and goings of the staff in there purple scrubs.

“so, sunshine. Ever been in the kiddies ward before?”

“nope. You?”

“me? Ahhhhh, no. One of me sisters? Yup” Teige yawned, scratching at one of his curved ram horns. They had been on the go since before sun up, and now it was late. In mid-summer. They were tired.

“what she do?” hawk shuffled his wings, stretching his wings a little, trying not to yawn himself.

“lets just say that the words ‘hey, watch this!’ was part of it. Ma was at work, so guess who had to take her stupid butt to hospital. …….Stop laughing sunshine. Not everyone has self-healing sisters.” 

“annnnd there one of the reasons that I an’t ever been to the kiddies ward. That and Em would’ve never been able to foot the bill.”

“ahh, point.”

A commotion from the doors behind them, leading out to rest of the hospital. Hawk glanced back through the windows on the (closed) doors and winced slightly. Teige cocked his head in response to hawks expression.

The rest of the RIT squad had arrived, along with 13 rounds of panicky parents.

Ironically, it took longer to get the parents to settle down then it did the children in the first place. But once the panicky round of ‘oh gods thank the heavens you are all right you are so grounded for eternity we love you’ where over and done with, the ward matron laid down the law. The kids where to be staying for at least the next 12 hours for observation (just in case. it was standed practice for all incoming trafficking victims, young or old), and would be given an obligatory tetanus vaccine before they left (also just in case, you never know). Parents could stay, but there where no space for spare beds. Please keep that in mind.

Once the announcements where over, and the ruckus had calmed down, most of the parents of the older children opted to go back to their homes, safe in the knowledge that there kids where safe and sound at the hospital. They would be good for one night- and it gave them time to inform other family members of the good news. That left 7 of the 13 sets to pull up some plush chairs that had been provided, so that they could stay the night with there little ones.

A relieved calm settled over the ward as the children and most of the remaining adults drifted of the sleep. The nurses on duty switched shifts, and Hawk and Teige where told, in polite terms, to go and get some shut eye in one of the adjoining rooms. They would need to be back at the hospital with the rest of the RIT squad with in 8 or so hours anyway to finish up the paperwork that needed to be done (report writing was the worse part of the job, in both opinions). So they both decided to catch some sleep where they were instead.

“ we could still go bother Vlad” Tiege grumbled snuggling His stoat form into a pillow. The room the two of them had borrowed was not huge, and was probably a little office at some point. It was just big enough for Hawk to stretch out his 6’10 frame, wings and all. It was still kind of snug, but it was not the worse place that the two of them had slept. This room had air con, for example.

“An’ why would we do that, this place is comfy enough” Hawk settled into the small pile of blankets and pillows that had been provided, smiling at the thought of the friendly spirit He called his roommate, and the brilliant cooking that the two of them would whip up some nights. Chuckling, Hawk reached over and promptly dumped one of the thin, but very warm blankets on Teige, covering the grumpy phooka completely. Teige’s lamp like eyes glared out from under the edge of blanket, glaring at the younger, taller man. Hawk grinned at him. Teige huffed and curled up under the blanket. He started fell asleep and snoring almost instantly.

Hawk settled down into his makeshift bed, still smiling. It was late. He was tired. But they had saved some kids, and stopped the traffickers from getting away. All in all. A good, productive day. The rest of there squad had been summoned back to base, for a debriefing, but they had been asked to stay by some of the staff. Hope and Hearth did have a security team, but it had been agreed that the presence of the two of them would be a good way to reassure the children when they woke up. It gave peace of mind to the parents as well. The hospital had to provide somewhere to sleep in return.

It would do for the night. Besides, there was a much nicer bed waiting for him back at Vlad’s. and at his wonderful boyfriends..

Hawk fell asleep with the images of star studded bedding and hairless cats in his mind.

———————–


	2. .... And you are?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> enter the child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a very slight mention of abuse in this one! and a medical check up.

Hawk awoke to two distinct feelings. The first was the warm, beaming morning sun filtering through the office window above his head, and the second was the feeling of something cuddling him. Something small, too small to be Teige. And too big to be Teige in his stoat form.

Blinking sleep from his eyes, the first thing that Hawk noticed was that Teige was still asleep on his pillow, sprawled out on his back, paws in the air and snoring like a chainsaw. Confused, hawk turned his attention to the warm something that was clinging to his middle like a stubborn limpet.

It was one of the children that had been recovered the night before.

The young spirit was sound asleep, dressed in worn light yellow pyjamas, curly ashy brown hair covering their face as they dosed sweetly, arms wrapped tight around Hawks waist, using His tummy as a pillow. They were.. tiny. Hawk admittedly was not good at telling ages in spirits, but she could tell that this little one was very young indeed. If he had to guess, he would say that she was about 7 in spirit years. A small 7 years at that. They were thin. The traffickers had not been kind to the poor child.

The spirit snuffled in their sleep.

The door creaked open as one of the young nurses popped his head around the door. The rosy feathered harpy looked confused at the sight of the equally confused RIT soldier being used as a bed by a small spirit child. The look of confusion was replaced by a look amusement.

“Ah, there she is. Sorry! She sneaked off whilst our backs where turned” The nurse motioned with one wing to the sleeping bundle, who, almost on que, started to wake up. She raised her head, looking up at hawk with a bleary expression on her face, eyes still mostly hidden under her hair. And yawned. Hawk’s heart sank at the sight of the child’s missing canine teeth. Those traffickers really had not been kind to her. Harpy nurse made to try and pick her up, only to have her start to rise a fuss and squirm away from his touch, unwilling to leave her warm bed, accidentally kneeing Hawk somewhere tender as they did.

The little spirit took the opportunity pointed by hawks reaction to the sudden, sharp pain to lunge up, and wrap her thin arms around His neck , pressing her head into his shoulder whilst whimpering softly. Startled, Hawk gently attempted to move her, only to be met by a volley of louder whimpering, sniffling, and the grip on his neck getting tighter.

Hawk shot the nurse a helpless look.

“Er, I don’t think she’s gonna let go” The harpy, Robert (according to his name tag), shrugged his wings in response, looking a little sheepish at the situation. He had been on watch when She had slipped out of bed, after all.

“if I may ask, since she’s… er… taken to you so well, would you mind, maybe, helping us take her to one of the exam rooms? The doctors want to take a closer look at her, because of the state she’s in.”

Hawk took a closer look at his new friend, taking note of just how dishevelled this child looked. They where thin, yes, but also looked messy, and not in the way children where normally messy. She looked.. neglected. Hawk turned back to Robert, and nodded. Then reached down, and tipped Teige off of his pillow to wake him up.

…..

The exam room followed the same theme as the rest of the children’s ward. Namely, diabetes inducing murals on all any wall that were not used for storage. And even then, a lot of the cabinets had posters from popular kiddie tv shows on them. It was done deliberately, as to make the room less scary to the children who would end up there. But to most adults with colour vision, the room was.. loud to say the least.

The little spirit on the other hand, found the room fascinating. Once she had realised that Hawk was not going anywhere without her, she had started investigating anything she could reach. Opening any cabinet that did not have a child lock (only a couple, containing harmless things like paper towel) carefully examining the smiley flowers that decorated the wall by the door, and even trying to open the bin to have a look inside (that attempt failed. There was a spell lock on it). Despite her curiosity, any sound from outside the room would send her skittering back to Hawk to hide behind His legs and tail feathers, big blue/green eyes looking up at him for reassurance.

Hawk could feel his heart melting. Who could be cruel to such a child? Someone who needed a firm talking to, and a good kick in the ass as well, that’s who.

Any thoughts of vengeance was put to one side as the door to the examination room popped open, and the doctor who would be checking hawks new friend over walked in, followed by a cranky looking Teige bearing coffee, and what looked to be doughnuts. Hawk pouted a little at Teige ‘not for you’ motion in regards to the coffee and snacks. Someone was a little bit grumpy about the surprise wake up call.

The sensation of someone tugging on his tail feathers made hawk realise that The little spirit had ducked back behind his legs at the site of two people that She did not know. The doctor was a soft spoken Golden hind, wearing scrubs with happy flowers all over them, and a name tag bearing the name Dr M. Poulos. She set a small stack of paperwork down on the counter top, next to a heavily stickered computer.

Dr Poulos turned smartly to the three other people in the room.

“Good morning gents! Dr Michell Poulos at your service. So, I’m guessing that the little lady down there is the person I’m here to see, correct?” She chirped, offering a gentle smile. Hawk gave a little nod, and scooted the child out from behind him.

“Ahh, what a little cutie.” Dr Poulos cooed at the little spirit, causing her to smile and giggle shyly. Dr Poulos checked some of the paperwork, before taking a stethoscope out of one of the draws.

“Big guy, Hawk right? Could you help this nice young lady up onto the bed? Lets get this little exam over with whilst she’s still feeling brave.” Hawk nodded slightly and gently gave the young spirit a boost on to the crisply made exam table.

“ok, first things first, do you have a name little one?” she asked the child, who held up her wrist in response. Partially hidden under the sleeve of her pyjamas, was what looked to be a chunky looking red hospital wristband- one that did not belong to Hope and Hearth. It was fastened tightly to her wrist and , on closer inspection, had ALX-A printed on the top of it, and a string of numbers on the other side. Hawk and Poulos gave each over a look.

“Alexa? Is that correct? Can we call you Alex?” Dr Poulos questioned. The little spirit, Alex, gave a happy nod in response, before jabbing her wrist at firmly at the gilded furred doctor.

“Oh? Would you like me to take it off you?” Another, more vigorous nod was given as a reply.

Dr Poulos turned and pulled a small pair of fabric scissors out form the same draw that the stethoscope had come from, and snipped the plastic band from Alex’s outstretched arm, being careful not to touch the letting or the numbers. She then handed the band to hawk so he could have a better look. The band had what looked to be an computer chip embedded in the back, under where the letters were. In hawks mid, it looked one of the sim cards that came in phones. Small, and used to store data. But, what sort?

“Hey, doc?”

“Yes Hawk?” 

“Could we take this” He held up the band “with us? I think our tech guys might wanna take a look a’ this”

Dr Poulos nodded, and found a small specimen bag in another draw. Hawk dropped the band in and sealed it shut, and pocketed it, making a mental note to hand it into evidence once he got to base. The sound of Alex giggling at something drew His attention. She was looking at something behind him, and Dr Poulos, taking notice, was trying to keep a straight face too. Turning, he found that Teige has fallen asleep whilst they had been talking, leaning against the wall by the door, snoring lightly. Hawk just shrugged helplessly at the two of them, not bothering to hide his amusement.

“Ahh, let him sleep. Maybe he’ll be a little less grumpy once Marinos gets back here.”

“Marinos?”

“our captain. Said he would be back in the mornin’ to pick us and any reports or evidence up.”

Nodding slightly in agreement, Dr Poulos got her exam of alex under way, starting out by checking he child’s heart and lungs (“all healthy and clear.”) before moving on to body temperature, height and weight, eye and ears. Alex was compliant for the most part, only starting to fuss when Dr Poulos got round to trying to check her mouth and teeth.

“Come on sweetie, just open your mouth a little bit. Please?” Alex just gritted her teeth together harder and tried to squirm back into Hawk’s arms, shaking her head. A thought from earlier came back to hawks mind with a jolt.

“Er, Doc? I think the…… Lovely people who had her last pulled her canine teeth out. Think she may be a bit touchy about it.” Dr Poulos pulled back slightly in horror, ears pinned back.

“wha- why would someone do something like that to such a sweet child??” she shook her head in disgust. It was decided that they could skip the oral check for now, and managed to get Alex to sit back on the bed. No use stressing Alex out any more than was necessary.

“right. Almost done. Just got one more thing to do. Hawk? Could you distract our little friend? I need to draw some blood, and I don’t think she is going to like this one bit.” Hawk blinked. Then nodded. Alex gave Dr Poulos a suspicious look. She did not quite understand what the golden deer had meant by ‘draw blood’ but…

“Heyyy Alex? Look! There are birds on the ceiling.” Hawk pointed at the colourful birds plastered all over the ceiling. Alex looked up.

“How many blue one d’ ya think there are?”

Alex cocked her head, and started to try and count the blue ones. There were… one, two…three? Four, five.. She payed no attention as Dr Poulos found a vain in her arm and took the samples that where needed. Less than minuet later, she was done, and was taping a frog themed plaster over the needle mark with a cheery “all done!”.

Alex looked at the plaster, and gave Hawk a betrayed look that read ‘you tricked me, traitor!’, as Hawk chuckled and ruffled her hair. 

“Ok young lady, all done today. We can look at you teeth another day, alright?” Dr Poulos produced a lollipop from yet another one of the draws, and held it out to her now slightly grumpy patient, who took it after a moment with a small nod. Alex climbed up into Hawks arms as Dr Poulos filled out a copy of the report of the exam for Hawk to take as evidence, and put a note about putting in a new appointment to have her teeth checked out. Hawk took note of the time.

“only 8:30 huh? Wow, time for breakfast.” He remarked. His tummy rumbled almost on que. Alex giggled at the sound and used her foot to lightly tap his side.

“You hungry too? Wanna get some food?” Hawk glanced over his shoulder at Teige, who was still soundly sleeping. “I think someone else could use some food too.”

A sharp knock on the Door got the attention of everyone, who was awake, in the room. Dr Poulos trotted over to the door and cracked it open, revealing another Lavender clad nurse and..

“Oh! mornin’ Captain!”

“Good morning Press. Sleep well? “ the green and red cockatrice, nodded a thank you to the nurse, and stepped into the room, immediately taking in the site of Hawk with a shy child in his arms, and Teige, with his back to the door, sound asleep.

“Just fine, thanks.”

“that’s good to know. Most of the kids have been discharged already, its only the Minotaur twins and the your new friend left.” Marinos stepped quietly over to Teige “The twins had a doctor’s appointment today anyway, and no one has come forward for this young lady”

“her names Alex, captain. And.. wait, what? I thought there was an address put forward?”

“No response over the phone, address came back as fake. Oh, I am sorry to intrude Dr..”

“Poulos. We had just finished up anyway” she smiled brightly. “are you the person who the report goes to?”

“unfortunately yes.” Captain Marinos sighed melodramatically, sneaking even closer to the sleeping pooka, who still had not budged from his sleeping spot.

“Hawk, I want your report in by Monday. Go get yourself something to eat whilst we try and find somewhere for Alex here to go. Don’t leave the hospital just yet, ok?” Hawk nodded, and made for the door.

“Gonna feed her too.”

“Got it. See you in the cafeteria in a little bit, Press”

“see ya Captain. Say thank you to Dr Poulos, Alex.” Alex gave The golden deer a friendly little wave. Dr Poulos waved back with a smile. Before he ducked out of the room, Hawk took one look at what Captain Marinos was about to do and turned back to Dr Poulos.

“You may want to cover your ears doc.” He grinned and left the room, hearing a confused sounding,

“Why?” came the response from behind Him. Less then a second later, She found out why.

“CARROL! WAKE UP YOU DOZY GOAT!” Captain Marinos blasted at top volume, probably into one of Teige’s ears judging by the way Teige yelped, and the way Dr Poulos burst out laughing.

Hawk Chuckled to himself, and continued off in search of food, with Alex safely stashed in his arms.


	3. Over my head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A child inhales pancakes.

Chapter 3: over my head.  
Hawk watched Alex from across the table. The cafeteria was warm and bright, sunlight pouring through the windows as people came and went. The breakfast menu was nothing special, but had all the usual yummy staples, such as eggs, bacon, toast, waffles, teas and coffees of many descriptions, pancakes, porridge and a bunch of other things that haled form other worlds. Like Atherian dumplings for example.   
Those buggers were delicious.  
But todays breakfast was pancakes. Well, Hawk’s breakfast was pancakes. Alex’s breakfast was 2 and a half plates of pancakes and counting. Alex had polished off the first two plates in record time, with the first one in particular not hitting the sides on the way down. She had slowed down some by plate 3, but was still chomping through the 6 strong stack of thick, fluffy pancakes with gusto.   
It was kind of cute.  
Hawk turned back to his own plate, and the draft of a report that he was trying to work on. The problem was, every time he tried to get a bit of work done, he would catch a fork, attached to a certain spirit, sneaking towards his half eaten plate of food. That and, he could not concentrate for some reason. Overly tired, still. Probably. Mabey.  
And his brain was giving him hell, again.   
After watching what He had been writing float across the page for the 6th time, Hawk sighed, stretched, and promptly scooted his plate out of the reach of Alex.   
“Not for you. These are mine. Hey now, don’t give me that look.” Hawk let out a little laugh at the pout he got in response. Alex had finished pancake plate 3 and was apparently still hungry. On a dime, Alex turned her scowl into the best ‘pretty please with sugar on top, please’ face she could muster, complete with sad kitten eyes and wobbly lower lip.  
“….. Don’t look at me with that tone of voice.”  
Alex scooted just a little closer.  
“No. these be mine.”  
Those big aqua blue eyes got even bigger.  
“Na-da. Nope.” Hawk backed up his point by taking a big bite out of his own pancakes.  
“Tormenting children, eh Press? How cruel of you.” Captain Marinos had to laugh at the duo. Hawk moved his part done work into his bag, making room for Marinos to sit himself down at the table to Hawk’s left, directly across from Alex.   
“welp. We are done here for the most part. Teige has volunteered to run thing s back to base for us, so you can clock off in a bit.” Marinos took a sip of the coffee he had brought. “Got someone coming from the child support fokes on their way to get this young lady to a safe place.”  
Alex gave Marinos a weary look, and made another stab at Hawk’s half eaten pancake stack. She missed, the fork thudding into the table top as she did. Both Marinos and Hawk both broke out in laughter as Alex kept trying to get at hawks food, climbing hawk’s side as she did.   
“Teige ‘volunteered’? ya mean ya told him too, right.”  
“perhaps. He seemed quite eager to get away from me just now.”  
“….. Wull, you did catch him nappin’.”  
Alex finally gave up of her attempted pancake heist and sat down with a huff. Hawk Finished the pancake he was eating, and slid the last two onto Alex’s plate. Marinos watched as Alex practically inhaled them, slightly surprised at the speed that Alex had eaten, but then again, he remembered his own child being a very fast eater when she was little too. The bottomless pit of a stomach was a thing in all species, apparently.   
And the ability to wrap someone around your finger was there too, Marinos noted. He could tell that Hawk already had a big old soft spot for this little one. Something crossed the cockatrice’s mind, and He peered at the child.  
“Hawk? How long has she been in those pyjamas?”  
Hawk looked at the battered yellow long sleeve top and trousers that Alex was wearing. Looking closely, you could just about make out a butterfly pattern on the top.   
“Dunno. she came in in them. And kept running away from the poor nurse.”  
“Joy.” Marinos pointed firmly at Alex “you young lady, are going to get some new clothing before you leave.” Alex nodded meekly in agreement, and ducked her head back down to start doodling on a napkin with hawks pen.   
“Good.” Another sip of coffee was taken. Hawk pulled out another pen and started adding to Alex’s drawing. The small group fell into a comfortable silence.  
The sound of heels clicking on hardwood floor cased all heads to snap back up. An Attractive young , blond Nymph in heels and a suit trotted up to the table, oozing warmth and kindness as she did. She stopped in front of them, clipboard in hand, and presented them with her Id badge.  
“Good morning! I’m Iris Oleander, Child protection.” She beamed at Marinos, shaking his wing.  
“So! Is this the young lady who needs somewhere to go? Oh my, you are such a cutie.” Alex seemed to take an immediate disliking to this loud stranger. She ducked behind Hawk a little, peeping out from behind His wing. Iris grinned at Alex, before turning on her heals and presenting Marinos with the clipboard that she was holding.  
“I do need to go through some paperwork with you before she can go with us though, is it ok do it now? I can wait if you are busy.”  
Marinos blinked a couple of times at documents that had been jabbed under his beak, and looked back up at the smiling young lady holding it out to him.  
“Ah, no, we are not buzy at the moment. Hawk, going to need your input for some of this.” Iris glanced up at Hawk, seemingly only just realising that He was there. Her face became unreadable for just a moment.   
“ah, no. Only need some input from you, sir.”  
“Hawk is the one who has been looking after said child, ma’m. He would be able to fill out some to these questions better than I can.” Marinos flicked through the pages of documents that was pinned to the clip board. Most of it was easy to fill, but Hawk would be able to fill some of these better. He had not yet gone through the medical report yet, and Hawk had been taking care of the girl.  
“My higher ups only want to hear from the You, Sir. Consistency and such.” Iris’s smile was back, but it was lacking some of the warmth that it had had. Marinos gave her a blank look, not quite buying her words. But in the end, he shrugged. Government agents were a pain to deal with at the best of times, and near impossible to deal with at the worst of time. Marinos was tired, slightly annoyed and now he was being presented with even more lovely, lovely paperwork to deal with. The sort that would require more paperwork to be read to complete said paperwork. In Marinos’s opinion, He had not had enough coffee yet to deal with this.  
Bracing Himself for the incoming headache that was bound to ensue from the growing paperwork hell, Captain Marinos turned to Hawk.  
“Press, you are dismissed. I will take it from here. Go home and get some rest.”  
“sir.”  
Hawk ruffled Alex’s hair, and kneeled down to her eye level.  
“you behave now, ok. This nice lady is gonna find you a nice family to stay with. But you gotta be good.” He gave her a small hug as a goodbye.  
Alex whimpered loudly. Iris put her hand on the child’s shoulder and smiled down at her in a reassuring way, shooing Hawk off with her free hand, not bothering to look at him. Hawk huffed at Iris’s attitude, it rubbed him the wrong way. But here and now was not a good time to make a scene about it. Not in front of Alex.  
Alex let out a small cry as Hawk got up to leave. He tried to ignore Her increasingly distressed sounding cries as He started on his way to the cafeteria doors. Behind him, he could hear Iris trying to reassure Alex, sounding increasingly annoyed as she did so.  
“now, now sweetie. He’s got to go now. You are going with me. It’s going to be ok. We just got to fill out this paperwork. settle down honey. I said….” Iris voice was cut off when a sudden tearing sound and a shout, and as Hawk turned back to investigate a small yellow blurr hit his legs, wailing as it did so.   
It was Alex. She had worked herself free from Iris’s grip, and had lost the right sleeve of her pyjamas doing so.   
“no. no no NO!” It was the first time she had spoken since her rescue the night before.   
“stay.” She fixed Him with a desperate, pleading look.   
“Alex, I can’t..” He started  
“NO. STAY.” She was crying now.  
Hawk had no idea what to do. He picked her up and gave her a hug. Alex wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. Marinos approached the duo, making sure that He did not startle Alex any more. But before he could reach them, Iris stormed over to them, and tried to take Alex from his arms, clearly annoyed at Both Hawk and Alex. She got even angrier as Alex flinched away from her touch, and Hawk moved away from her slightly.   
“Give her here.” She insisted, making another grab at Alex. Alex promptly responded by crying out again and holding on tighter. Hawk looked at Alex, and then back at Marinos, then at Iris. He shook his head firmly. Iris lost her temper.  
“I said GIVE HER HERE HALFBREED!” She snapped up at Hawk, making another grab at Alex as she did so. Marinos promptly interrupted her attempts with a firm hiss.  
“Miss.”   
Iris spun to face him, her look of anger switching back to that pleasant smile that she had had on her face when she had first come in.  
“Yes Captain?” she chirped sweetly  
“I am guessing that you have a mobile on you, yes?” She nodded “With your bosses number on it, yes?”   
“Yes, but..”  
“Call them.”  
“But..”  
“CALL THEM. NOW.” He growled at her, tail flicking in anger as he sat her down back at the table.   
“I can tell YOU one thing, and that thing is that Alex here is not leaving with you. Infact..” He gave her a glare that could melt iron “She is not going anywhere until I and your bosses have a nice. Long. Chat.” Iris tried to stutter out an excuse, but the combination of look that Marinos was still fixing her with, and the combined glances that the diners surrounding them where shooting the group meant that she really did not have much of a choice.   
She pulled out her mobile phone and started dialling.  
-  
Alex had needed new clothing. Even more so now that her already battered top was now missing one of its long sleeves. Thankfully, the hospital’s bank of donated clothing had plenty of options for a slender child who loved bright colours and animals. He let Alex pick out a complete outfit (a top, ¾ length trousers a set of undergarments, socks and even a pair of slip on shoes.) Hawk had even found an Atherian under top in her size in one of the boxes, with a floral pattern on it. (Alex had happily taken it from him, and was currently wearing it under a purple top with butterflies on it)  
When Teige had got to them, with a fresh round of doughnuts and drinks for the 3 of them, Hawk was helping Alex go through a box of pyjamas.   
“Mornin’ again, feathers.” Teige placed the doughnuts on a small table next to the door.   
“mornin’ goatface” Hawk shot back. “Guessing captain sent you.”  
“yup. Told me to give these to you” He motioned to the food and drinks. “Annnd to give you an update about what’s going on.”  
Hawk bobbed his head, and signed to Teige to sit down next to him.  
“So! Just after you left, and I walked in, Marinos got through to that… witch’s boss, and gave him a chewing out over the way she talked to you, and the way she treated ya little friend.” Teige nodded to Alex, who had finished picking out some new night clothing and had started digging through a box of adult sized clothing just to the left where Hawk was sitting.  
“Anyway. To cut a long story short, after some shoutin’ and discussing..”  
“AKA louder shouting?” hawk grinned. Teige smirked.   
“yeh. Well, they came to an agreement! It took them some, but they did decide on something…..”  
“Yeh?”  
“wellllllll, turns out you are taking her home.”  
“….. what.”  
“Just until they can track down her fokes, that is. ‘Stops there being any further stress to the child’ or something. Anyway, turns out Vlad’s place was checked anyway, you know, because of the fact that he fosters trade refugees and such. They still wanna sent someone ‘round later but.. ” Teige looked back at Hawk, who had a deer in the headlights look on His face.  
“Feathers?”  
“..w..what??” Hawk stuttered out, clearly shocked. “Teige, I have no idea how to look after a kid!”  
“you will be fine feathers. Really! She already likes you! That’s a start.”  
A sharp noise from Alex got their attention, making them both turn in her direction. Alex held up a top that she had pulled from the box. It was a light grass green, with deer like laar printed in gray and white on the chest of it. The only problem was that this shirt, if worn, would come to down Alex’s shins. She held it up to Hawk for approval.   
“Alex.. it’s nice but, it’s a bit big for you, don’t ya think?” Hawk said with a chuckle. “Buuut, hey! Why don’t you keep it as a nightshirt.” Alex thought for a moment and nodded with a little chirp of  
“yes” and she set about trying to stuff her new clothing into a small backpack that the clothing bank had provided to her (purple, also with laars on it.) with glee.  
“God, shes cute.” Hawk nodded in agreement of Teige’s statement. They watched Alex work away for a couple of moments, before Teige stood up.  
“Well, I gotta go. Captain grumpy pants wants me to drag allll the reports and alllll the evidence back to base. By myself. Did you bag her pjs?” Hawk nodded and handed him the evidence bag. “thanks. Oh, by the way… there is a child protection fella waiting for you in the lobby. Wants to have a quick chat before you go. Marinos oked him.”  
Hawk watched as His best friend Gave Him a thumbs up as He left the room. He sighed gently, looked back at Alex, and went to get the food and drink that Teige had left. Doughnuts and soda for both of them.   
“Hey, Alex? Do you want lemonade or fizzy grape?”


	4. Voice mail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "-Athenian-"

Chapter 4: voice mail  
Message received at 10:35 am  
_“hey Vlad. Its hawk here. I know ya busy at work but I need to tell you that I kinda just…. Adopted a kid. Wull, adopted on a temporary basis, until we find her parents but she kind of glued herself to me annnnd. Yeh. Uh.. can we put her up in the room next to mine? She’s a cute little spirit about … 7? In spirit years I think? She looks like she has laith in her too and …. No Alex don’t touch that. So er, call me when you get this? Bye.“ _End of message.__

______ _ _

__

Vlad du Russi stared at his phone for a moment.  
The message had been left about 10 ago. Which was 5 minutes before He had manged to get on break at the university of Escalus.  
It was early July, exam season, and he had just finished handing out exam papers, fetching books, collecting the exam papers back in running a stack of exam papers up to professor shinobu’s office, and doing a whole host of other jobs whilst he and the professor both tried to get all the students taking the bestiary and monster studies course through the exams alive.  
So of course he had not realised that his phone was going off in his pocket.  
After playing the message again, he hit redial on Hawks number and waited for his roommate to pick up. Fiddling with one of his hair clips as he did. Hawk picked up after the 3ed ring.

“Mornin’ Vlad”  
“Hawk, honey, what’s this about you adopting a child? “  
“wull, She kinda adopted me….”  
Hawk spent the next 10 minutes relaying the last day and a bit to Vlad, detailing the oh so dramatic rescue operation, and resulting hospital antics. Hawk tried not to laugh describing Captain Marinos’s little wake up call to Teige, and Vlad had to laugh at the vanishing pancakes saga, but stopped short when Hawk mentioned what had happed with Iris from child protection.  
“That’s not right. I mean, I have heard rumours from Jade about there being some …problems when mixed race fokes like you try to use their services, but right to your face like that? The cheek of it.” Vlad hissed through his teeth, bearing his fangs in irritation.  
“I would of said something to her myself, but I had by hands full.” At this point, Vlad could hear someone making little noises on the other end of the line. “Yeh, full with you. Alex says Hi Say hi to Vlad, Alex.”  
“Hi” a little voice chirped. Vlad felt his heart melt a little.  
“hello to you too.” Vlad replied pleasantly, glancing at the clock on the wall. 5 minutes of break left. Dang.  
“Anyway, you ok with her staying in the spear room? The one across the balcony from mine?”  
“That’s fine! You may need to change the linen on it tho. I don’t think I have changed it recently.”  
“ Removing the cat from said bed first, right?”  
“please do. She has already had her weekly bath.”  
“Aww. Will do. Anyway, got to go. I’m going take Alex to that big toy and kiddies stuff store on Melrose street, pick up some stuff. Like toys. And a teddy or two. And socks. Hey now don’t give me that look madam.” Vlad was pretty sure that he could hear Alex pouting from the other end of the line. Socks are never exciting to a child after all.  
“oh, one last thing, Vlad? I did manage to speak to another person from the.. child protection people. He said that he would be coming other th’evening, wants to go through some paperwork with you, being the home owner and all. Just wanted to give you the heads up.”  
“Thanks for the warning hun. Look, my brake is over, so I will see you when I get home tonight.”  
“See ya Vlad.”  
“Bye~”

Vlad hit end on the call and sighed gently. Hawk and his big heart made him smile on any day, but this would be an interesting experience. It had been a long time since He had taken care of children, let alone a spirit child, but… She needed help. And Vlad was not the sort of person to turn someone in need down.  
Vlad hopped off of the bench that he was sitting on and headed back into the university library, back to work.  
\---

Across the river from the university, on the only hill for miles, sat the royal palace of Aetheri. The sprawling complex was a hive of activity as the morning progressed, guards and servants, cooks and blacksmiths all going about their days work, relishing the summer warmth as they did.  
The Cynn Numair was also enjoying the warm summer day, sitting out on the veranda outside his bedroom, soaking up some sun as he did some paperwork. A warm breeze rustled the sheets of paper on the small garden table in front of him, bringing the smell of dry grass and spices from the vast grasslands and kitchens below him.  
Numair paused, looking up from the small stack of tax and expense forms that he had been going over. It was a quiet morning, and for once in his life, there was no huge stacks of papers to go through, none of his family was trying to do anything to him and he had no appointments to go to. A quiet morning, and a quiet day.  
It was suspicious.  
Highly suspicious.  
Numair put down his dip pen and stretched. 2 pages of papers to go, and he would be free for the rest of the day. Free to do whatever he wanted.  
Until the next petition, or diplomatic squabble, or crisis. Whenever that would be.  
A cursorily glance over at a wall clock that had been tacked to the door frame next to him informed him that it was now 11:15 in the morning. This paperwork would be done by 11:30 tops. Numair rolled his green eyes, and got back to the task at hand.  
Another gentle puff of wind blew some of his bronzy hair into his face as he worked to the sound of pen on paper, and the cooing of a flock of rit birds somewhere on the roof just above him. The sound of a radio played faintly from where he had left it on in his office, just loud enough to be herd. The world just seemed so peaceful at the moment. So very peaceful.  
Too bad the peace did not last.  
Numair had just finished sighing off the tax forms, and was adding His stamp when a voice rang out from the direction of his office.  
“”  
The brassy voice Numair’s trusty construct/phone/ secretary rang out, as the knee high bird shaped construct waddled through is bedroom to reach him on the veranda. Numair leaned down to offer his arm for her to hop on to.

“- oh? Who is it Sraddi?-” Numair asked.  
“-Fiaqra d’Escala-” Sraddi answered in a brassy yet peppy voice. “ ”  
Numair grimaced at the thought of speaking to his grandmother. She hated him with a passion, and only ever really contacted him to complain about Him, or some part of His life, or His administration, or him in general… Numair could go on and on and on.  
Numair sighed. This would going to be fun.  
“- …… Put her through.-”  
….  
“-pardon.-” Numair said flatly, not quite believing what he was hearing  
“-I said, child, when are you planning to marry continue the family line.-”  
Numair blinked. This was one of the very last things He ever thought he would hear out of the mouth of his, to be blunt, rather hostile Grandmother.  
She hated Him.  
“- No time in the foreseeable future. Besides, I personally recall you saying that I was the very last member of this family that you wanted to have children.-”  
Fiaqra scoffed at her grandchild’s response.  
“-That does not matter, Child. It is part of your duty as Cynn to further the family line. Like it or not. And you need someone around to temper your… wild ideas when it comes to the polices you come up with.-”  
Numair bit his tongue. He did not like the sound of this one little bit.  
“-Besides, finding you a suitable spouse will not be that hard. A lot of noble households have members who are eligible, and of good stock. I will send you a list, with photos, for you to look through. I expect to have a reply by the end of the week. -”  
“-Can I ask to where this has come from all of a sudden?-” Numair interjected, trying to get a word in edgeways.  
“-That is none of your concern.-”  
“-It kind of is…-”  
“-No, it’s not. Expect the list to be on your desk within the hour.-” Fiaqra promptly cut the call.  
Numair stared at Sraddi for a long moment, trying to prosses the events of the last 10 minutes.  
This was completely unexpected, and rather ominous. Any sort of interest that Fiaqra had in him was ominous.  
Oh boy.  
Numair slumped back down in His seat with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he did.  
“-Sraddi? Please put a message through to Hawk. Tell him that will be stopping by later for… cuddles. And access to that big bottle of rum in the top cabinet in the kitchen. He knows the one.-”  
“-understood. Would you like me to ask for a call back?.-”  
“-No, no. Just … add that I may need to vent. A lot.-”  
“-Yes.-” Sraddi bobbed her teal head and sent off the message. Numair sat back in his chair and let out a long, drawn out sigh.  
This was going to be painful.  
It was not like he could politely inform his lovely, lovely family that he was very much involved with someone already. Someone tall, dark, with big gray wings. And stiped tail feathers. And such expressive gray eyes. Numair got one of those soft, soppy smiles on his face as he thought about the big dork that was the love of his life.  
The very secret love of his life.  
Numair had to sit and admit that there would be hell to pay if the Athenian nobility ever found out that, shock horror, The cynn was involved with an off-worlder, and not only that, a mixed species off-worlder.  
Assassins would probably be involved.  
A sharp knock on the door of his office. That would be the list arriving. Numair sighed and started trudging towards the door. So much for a quiet morning.

 

Hawk tapped his foot along to the music playing on the radio as glanced out the window. The bus trundled through the centre of the city, away from the main shopping district and out into the residential suburbs. The midday sun had peaked in the sky outside, and the heat was very much unbearable for most people.  
Hawk, being from the subtropical southern isles was not one of those people. But even he was glad that the city bus had some nice cool air conditioning. Alex knelt on the seat beside him, nose pressed up to the window, completely engrossed in the streets passing outside. Hawk Had to sit and wonder how much of things outside where new to her, if she had spent any time outside at all before her rescue.  
Hawk’s heart ached for her.  
The 2 of them had taken over the back row of this bus, with Alex sitting next to the window, a small pile of shopping bags sitting on the chair next to Her, and Hawk in the aisle seat, right under the air con unit.  
Hawk was not a dumb bird.  
The announcement for Pyramid drive chimed out from the front of the bus, and a familiar self-storage unit came into view out of the widow. Hawk hit the stop button and roused Alex from her stupor, grabbed the bags, and trundled out into the hot, midday sun.  
Vlad’s house was directly across the street from the bus stop, right next to the self storage place.  
Hawk held the bags in one hand, took Alex’s hand in the other, and guided Her across the road. The child looked up at the large 2 story detached town house with a look of wonder in her eyes. Hawk and to smile at her face, and let her investigate the porch swing as He got the door open, and dropped the bags of shopping just inside the door, before he called Alex in.  
The bags were moved from the hall to the breakfast bar that separated the living room from the kitchen Alex continued to look around the spacious home that she was in. Hawk kept one eye on her slow, inquisitive progress as he started to unpack the shopping that had been done since the two of them had left the hospital just over 2 hours before. As part of the ‘sorry for that’ speech that he had got from iris’s replacement ( a much nicer, very apologetic young mothperson) was a lump sum of money to be spent on Alex’s wellbeing.  
It was only about $250, but in Hawks mind, it was well enough to get Alex set up for a good while.  
In just under an hour or so, He had used the cash to buy Alex some more clothing, including the much threatened socks, some books, colouring books and a range of pens and pencils in all the colours of the rainbow (and then some), some very laar-y bedding (grass green, with gray, white and black laars prancing about. Alex was insistent.), a big tub of plastic animals (from a number of worlds) and  
“Hey Alex? You want to have your new friend now?”  
Hawk pulled a large plush toy out one of the bags. It was also a laar, made of soft, gray and white speckled minky fabric, complete with a long, tufted tail. Alex had fallen in love with it on sight, and had pulled off the cutest set of puppy dog eyes hawk had ever seen to convince him to get it for her.  
Hawk could not resist.  
Alex politely took The plush from Hawk’s hands, took one of the colouring books and pencils, and made her way over to the living room carpet. She settled down, using one arm to snuggle the plush laar, and started to colour in the book.  
Hawk cracked a smile, and set about sorting out the rest of the shopping, do some more lovely paper work and maybe he could fix a snack or two.  
_  
Less than 20 minuets later, Hawk looked back over at Alex from his spot at the breakfast bar.  
She was out cold.  
She was using her plush laar as a pillow, and was curled up on her side, snoring softly.  
Hawk sneaked over to Alex, and gently checked to see if she was alright.  
She was fine. Apparently, the hospital antics and shopping trip was more tiring to little Alex that she had made out.  
Hawk let out a small sigh, and glanced back at the still unopened bedding. The spare bedroom really needed to be sorted out, and Alex was not going anywhere fast, so now would be a good time to nip upstairs and sort that out.  
Yeh. Now or never.  
Hawk grabbed the bedding and headed off upstairs.


	5. Another point of view

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cute kid goes walkies

Chapter 5: Another point of view

Alex woke up.  
She blinked blearily as she looked around the room. At some point she had rolled into a patch of sun, and it was nice and warm. She did not want to move from this spot just yet.  
So warm.  
Alex hugged her plush closer to her chest, and snuggled back down onto the warm carpet with a small sigh.  
She did not go to back sleep, tho. Instead, she looked around from her warm vantage point.  
She could not see her new dad.  
Startled, she sat up, then stood up, trying to see if Hawk was in the kitchen. He was not. She could see the stack of paper that he had been working on, but no Dad.  
Alex made a small, alarmed noise as she padded into the kitchen, looking about.  
Nope. Not there.  
Turning around, Alex trundled back through the living room, using her free hand to push some of her frizzy brown hair out of her face as she popped her head into the hallway.  
Still no Dad.  
Alex was starting to panic a little.  
The sound of someone talking upstairs and the sound of something… rumbling? Just down the hall from where she was.  
Alex opted to check out the rumbling first. Padding quietly down the hall, she found her way into a bright sun room, with a collection of comfy looking wicker furniture and an assortment of houseplants. No dad in here.  
The rumbling came from a utility room that branched off from the sun room. It was a washing machine going through a wash cycle. Alex had seen a washing machine before, but not one working and running. The sheets and soap bubbles tumbling together was almost hypnotic , and she stood and watched it for a moment, as the colourful fabric spun around and around.  
A thump from upstairs got her attention.  
Some one was up there. Dad? Was it Dad? Please say its dad.  
Please say its dad.  
please.

Another door separated the utility room from a downstairs bathroom, and another door on the other side of the bathroom lead out into the hallway that she had started out in, ending up at the foot of the staircase.  
The voices and the thump had come from somewhere up there.  
A she ascended, Alex contemplated the different shades of wood that the stairs and railing was made from, and the photos of pretty ladies and very colourful flag that hung on the wall on the way up.  
She was half way up when Hawk popped his head over the railings at the top of the stairs, making them both jump slightly.  
Alex quickly got over her fright, and rushed up the rest of the stairs to meet him. She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his leg, looking up at him with a slightly panicked look on her face.  
“Hello you. Guessing ya woke up sooner than I thought ya, huh?” Hawk scooped Alex up into his arms, and gave her a small, reassuring hug.  
“Sorry for scaring you.”  
Alex thought about it for a moment, then blew a raspberry at Hawk, making him laugh.  
“Alright alright, point made.” He ruffled her hair with his free hand “ wanna check out your room?”  
..

The room in question was a decent sized square bedroom towards the front of the house. The double bed in the centre of the room had been kitted out with the laar bedding that Alex had picked out that morning, and the rest of the books and craft supplies sat on top of the bedside table. The walls and furnishings was neutral in tones, lots of gentle browns and greens.  
In Alex’s opinion, it was a very nice little room.  
There was a small attached bathroom on one side, a window with a view of the house next door above the bed and a sliding door leading out onto a balcony looking out over the garden plots out back.  
Hawk showed Alex where the storage box was under the bed, which was already full of Her new clothing, and how the shower/bath combo worked, but apart form that, he let her poke about on her own.  
Alex stopped by the balcony door, and peered out. She could see that there was another room, through another sliding door across the balcony. Trotting back to the door to the hallway, she stuck her head around the door.  
“Whats wrong?” Hawk looked down the hall in the direction she was looking.  
Alex pointed back to the sliding glass doors, then peeked out into the hall again.  
“oh. Ohhhh. You wanna know what the room on the other side of the balcony is?”  
Alex nodded.  
“I migggght tell ya. maybe”  
Alex pouted up at him.  
“Maybe.”  
Alex squeaked out the tiniest little “please?”  
Hawk tried to keep a level face. Tried. He cracked a grin, let out a chuckle, and crouched down to Alex’s eye level.  
“That’s my bedroom. Full of all my things.”  
Alex looked back along the hall, and back at hawk again, slightly dubious.  
“ no really. That’s my room. What? Do you think I sleep on the porch swing or something?” Hawk was not going to tell Alex that he had slept on that porch swing in the past, when a warm spring afternoon had lulled him into gentle slumber. It was not a bad nap space, but was not really suitable a complete night’s sleep.  
Alex still looked slightly uncertain, and promptly trotted over to Hawks bedroom door and poked her head in to check.  
Hawk rolled his eyes and waited for her to finish her inspection.  
The front door banged.  
Alex almost jumped out of her skin, and raced back to hawk, hugging his legs in fright.  
“Love? Are you home?” Numair’s voice called from the hall way. Hawk stuck his head over the banisters and called an affirmative in response. The Cynn was panting, and fanning himself with a ornate looking hand fan. It looked like he had hurried over as fast as he could in the heat outside. He Looked spent.

“Numair, go get yourself a drink ‘en sit down or somethin’ you look like ya gonna faint.” Numair could see the worry radiating off of Hawk, and let out a small laugh.  
“Be down in a minuet.” Hawk heard Numair shuffle off into the kitchen, grumbling about the heat as he went. Hawk took a moment to crouch down to Alex’s eye level.  
“It’s ok. Hes nice. And he’s a spirit, just like you.” Alex still looked concerned about the stranger down stairs.  
“Its ok, its ok. You don’t have to go and say hi. You can stay up here if you want, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Hawk booped Alex’s nose and stood up, and headed to the stairs.  
Alex watched for a couple of seconds, still unsure. Then she trotted back into her room, grabbed her plush toy off the bed, and followed behind him.  
\--  
\--  
Numair was surprised, to say the least. Hawk had mentioned the ‘lesser spotted spirit’ that he had temporally adopted, but, well, he was expecting her to look more Atherian. The curly hair, brownish skin and broken rosettes spoke of some laith in her somewhere.  
She looked a bit like he did, when he was young.  
The child had greeted him from behind his loves legs, big aqua eyes peering out from under her fringe as she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and fear. But, after a some gentle coaxing from Hawk, and gentle words from himself, she became brave enough to leave Hawk’s side, and settled down in the sun room with them, happily drawing, with some snacks and a drink by her side, whist the two of them talked.

“Really. They are really trying to marry you off? What the actual hell.” Hawk shook his head, and poured Numair another drink. Numair rolled his green eyes, and knocked back his second drink of the day.  
“you don’t say, love. Its quite asinine, in truth.” He politely declined a top up of rum, and stated on the iced tea instead. “Something seems off about all of this.”  
“You can say that again.”  
Hawk petted Jannis, Vlad’s hairless cat, as the two of them sat in a soft silence enjoying the cool breeze that wafted in through the screen door.  
Numair put his drink down, and pulled the list of would be suitors out of his bag, plonking the stack of papers on the table that sat in front of them.  
“I had a glance through them on my way over, don’t recognise most of them.” The stack of papers was made up of profiles, with photos tacked on of the ''''lucky'''' spirits in question. Hawk had a flick through. Most of them were, as Numair had said, unknown to them both. Obscure children of noble households from all other Atheri. Those they did recognise, on the other hand……….

“well, they hate ya guts. So does this fella. And this one.”  
“true. And this lovely fellow,” Numair held up one of the profiles “is known to be, ah, less then pleasant to there … lovers.”  
Numair let out a long sigh. This was going well.  
Alex let out a surprised noise as Jannis Joplin the cat rubbed up to Her purring up a storm.  
“kitty no fur?” Alex cocked her head as she carefully stroked Jannis’s peach fuzz “oh. Soft.”  
Hawk got a lop sided smile on his face.  
“ya know, Numair. That’s the most I she’s spoken since we picked her up.” He spoke softly, so not to startle Alex. Numair looked over a the duo, and had to smile as well. Jannis tended to have that effect on people. She made people happy. She was a good, less then fuzzy cat.

Alex stuck a cookie in Her mouth and started to draw a picture of Jannis on the back of one of the colouring pages, humming a tuneless song as she did. She was almost a different child to the nervous bundle that arrived at the hospital the night before. Yes, she was still jumpy, but..  
The difference a day could make.  
“so.” Numair broke the silence. “Do you know her story?”  
“eh? Oh. Not much.” Hawk nibbled on a cookie “ I mean, we picked her up from a bunch of traffickers, and from what they said, they found her wandering the streets.”  
The troupe had spilled the beans on everything quite quickly after they had been arrested, which had been a blessing. A polite threat of being handed other to the Athenian authorities had done wonders in that regard, but the confessions had only thrown up more questions about where little Alex had came from.  
“I mean, I personally think that she may of escaped one bunch of traffickers, and run into another, but until we trace her family…”  
“you don’t know. I see.”  
“We did sent a blood sample off for DNA or somethin’. Said that it will take a day or so before we get results back.”  
“Ah. Going to compere it to that data base that the university back home has set up, right? That may bring up something, at least.”  
“didn’t you donate too?”  
“..yes..”

Hawk’s snort of laughter cased Alex to look up in confusion. All hawk could think of was one of the photos that had been included in the press release of the Athenian national DNA data bank (or something to that effect. Hawk could not remember the exact transition of the name). It was a photo of a rather grumpy looking Cynn, rubbing his arm with a complimentary sugar cookie in his mouth. Said Cynn had apparently not been informed that He would be donating a blood sample. Hawk had squirreled that photo away in an album upstairs.  
It was a funny photo.

Alex tugged on Hawks shirt to get his attention. When hawk looked, she held up the crayon drawing of Jannis that she had done.  
“Ay, it looks just like her.” Alex grinned up at him. Numair leaned over the table to get a look.  
“ so it dose. Looks like we have a budding artist here.”  
Alex just beamed even more, and went back to her drawings, starting on another masterpiece.  
Hawk summed things up with one sentence.

“Ah, God. She’s cute. “ Numair nodded in response.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the delay with this chapter. my oh so wonderful computer ate the file.

Chapter 6: call and response.  
-  
There was a stand off going on in the kitchen.  
Vlad had gotten home just before 7 pm to the amusing sight of Hawk and Alex having ‘words’ over a very important issue. Namely, that sweet peppers where not poisonous in any way shape or form, and where actually very good for her.  
and very yummy.  
Alex did not agree with this statement.  
Alex, as it turned out, did not like sweet peppers in any form.  
“come on. Eat your peppers! you'll like them~”  
Hawk pushed the small pile of roasted peppers back towards Alex, who sat pouting at him at the kitchen table.  
Hawk had timed dinner to approximately when Vlad would get home each day, so there would be hot, fresh food waiting for Him when He got in from work each day.  
(“Well, its th’ least I can do for ya! After you let me stay an all.” Had been Hawk's retort when Vlad had tried to tell him that He did not have to.)  
Tonight, it was a healthy meal of grilled chicken, with mashed spuds and mixed veggies.  
Alex did not like one part of the veggies.  
Alex did, on the other hand, did like Vlad.  
Vlad was more than happy to let Alex pester him whist he went over how his day had been with Hawk (who was washing the plates after dinner) and Numair (who was helping to make Hawk’s report at least slightly legible).  
“well. Today has been.. interesting for us all.”  
“ya think?” Hawk placed another plate on the drying rack with a soft clink.  
Vlad shook His head and watched as Alex tried on his glasses, which where a bit too big for her face.  
“I think,” Numair started, looking up from his writing “that murphy’s law may be in effect somewhat.”  
“Oh?” Vlad asked  
“Yeh” Hawk chimed in “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”  
“and will most likely go wrong all at once” Numair finished.  
The trio sat back in thought for a moment, as they watched Alex try to put Vlad’s glasses on Jannis.

\--  
Bed time, at least, was a quiet matter.  
By 9 pm, Alex had been bathed, dried, and put to bed with a bedtime story.  
The sun has almost finished setting by the time Numair and Hawk had settled down on the balcony together, taking in the warm summer air and chatting about anything and everything that came to mind. It was one of the things that Numair liked about Hawk. He was the sort of person who He could have a honest conversation with, free from any of the political bull that Numair had to put up with on a day to day basis.  
It was refreshing to say the least.  
“….Numair? you ok?” The sound of Hawk’s voice made Numair snapped back to realty. He had apparently spaced out a little mid talk.  
“I’m fine love, just thinking.”  
“Oh, about that little surprise ya fokes pulled on you, right?” Hawk sat back on the bench set out on the balcony, and let out a long, deep sigh. “I still can’t believe they pulled that on you.”  
Numair snorted. He was surprised, yes, but to be honest with himself, he was more surprised that they had not pulled a stunt like this before. But still. it had got him thinking about something. Something that He had been putting off for a good while.  
For a reason.  
“love.. I need to talk to you about something.”  
“Oh?”  
“Yes, its.. about us.” Numair glanced up at Hawk, seeing a flash of worry that danced around his head. “No, no, not like that! I mean, ah, well. I want to spend the rest of my days with you. No matter how long those days may be. But.. oh love. I am worried.”  
“what about?”  
“well..” Numair rested his head in his hands. “well. They are going to find out about us. They will. There is no way around it. I just… just.. “  
“you want them to find out on our terms?”  
“yes.” Numair looked up at Hawk. Hawk looked down at Numiar. The two of them lapsed into a slightly unnerved silence. Numair’s family had a… reputation when it came to family members, that had done something that the rest of them did not approve of. Like dating ‘unacceptable’ people.  
It was not a good reputation.  
Hawk was the one to speak up.  
“What should we do?”  
“I don’t know love. I just don’t know. I just want to try to, you know, try to make this work.”  
Hawk nodded, and took a sip of the soda he was holding.  
“so do I.”  
Another, more gentle science rained as the last of the summer sun slipped away into night.  
“so..” hawk started up again after a while “are you staying the night?”  
“ahhh, why not. Not like there is anything …. Interesting.. waiting for me..” Numair bumped his hip against Hawk as he brushed past him on the way to Hawk’s bedroom, giving him cheeky smile as he did.  
“Oh? Ohhhhhhh. Ok then..” Hawk was more than happy to follow him.  
-  
Morning came with the rain.  
Fat raindrops splatted down from heavy, dark clouds, making the road outside look like a river. Vlad was very, very glad that it was the weekend.  
He was NOT going out in that.  
Nor was Numair and Hawk, for that matter. The two of them sat at the kitchen table trying to work out some sort of plan of attack for ‘coming out’, so to speak. Alex was sitting on the lounge floor, between the remains of her breakfast, and the colouring books that she was happily scribbling away at.  
The peaceful atmosphere of the morning was broken by a series of knocks of the front door, startling everyone, and sending Alex scuttleing under the kitchen table in fright.  
Vlad answered the door to the sight of General Russet, with two other high ranking members of RIT flanking her. Which was a bit of a surprise.  
Russet opened with a very prompt :  
“Is the Cynn here?”  
“ah…”  
“Is He here?”  
“..yes.. Numair! Its for you. Uh, want to come in?”  
Numair met The general and her escort in the lounge, exchanging greetings as they did.  
“we apology for the intrusion, highness, but this” Russet held up an official looking letter “landed on my desk just over an hour back. We wanted you to see it before anyone else.”  
She handed the letter to Numair, and waited for him to read it. As he did, Her eyes fell on Alex who was peeping out from behind hawks wings, well and truly spooked by the stern looking trio. The other officers, a dark skinned spirit and a thick furred, wolf headed lady, both looked at Alex, then to Numair, and then at each other.  
Hawk narrowed his eyes at them. Something was not quite right.  
Numair made a stranged sort of noise, and gave the general a very sharp look.  
“Tell me that THIS-“ he waved the letter at her “- is some sort of joke.”  
“it is not.”  
Numair sat down on the couch, a look of shock on his face.  
“Numair, hey, Numair? Is something wrong?” Hawk started to stand up, only to be waved back by Numair.  
“This… this.. oh dear. Love?” Numair’s voice quaked slightly as he spoke.  
“yes?”  
“um, oh how do I put this….. She’s… mine.”  
“who?” Hawk blinked and tilted his head in confusion.  
“Alex… the university results got back… She’s mine, love. She’s my child.” Numair’s look of surprise was one for the record books.  
“………WHAT.”


	7. Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *jolts fanfic with defibrillators* LIVE, DAMNIT

Chapter 7: changes.  
Hawk lost track of the conversation between Numair and the general after the first 10 minutes or so. It wasn’t the fact that the whole conversation was in there native Atherian, since Hawk could understand the language quite well by now, no his confusion was due to the mile a minuet dialog and the fact that some of the wording being used was not the sort that cropped up in everyday conversation.  


Well for him at least. Not so sure about the Cynn.  


Alex had settled down a bit since the sudden intrusion of these 3 stern looking strangers, and had move from behind hawk’s legs to sitting in his lap, playing with His fingers as he watched Numair and General russet ‘discuss’ the very sudden turn of events. Apart from the small group of trusted friends that he and numair shared, the higher ranks of RIT were the only people who knew about the two of them.  


It had been hard to hide the relationship when a meeting of generals had barged in on them kissing passionately in the Cynn’s own office.  
Now that had been a fun little talk.  


Hawk was jolted back out of memory lane by Numair suddenly switching languages mid-sentence  
“…. And what did you mean by that, Exactly? That I should just leave the child to the care of the state? That I should abandon her? How could you say such things?”  
The wolf headed officer (general Bailey? if Hawk remembered correctly) flicked her ears back and dipped her head in embarrassment.  
“that is not what I meant, your highness, what I was trying to suggest is that you keep the young one’s existence quiet.”  
“yes,” the dark skinned spirit added “it would be safer for her. unfortunately highness, your family has a …. Ah, reputation, after all.”  
Numair dropped his head into his hands, and let out a sigh. They were right. Alex would be in danger if his family found out about her, if they did not know of all ready. Speaking of…  


“Who else knows about her?” He directed his question to Russet.  
“the memo was sent to me and me alone, the institute made sure of that.” She replied “and I have Du Ubus and Bailey here as witness.” The two generals nodded at the statement. Numair relaxed a little.  
“besides, if they knew about her, I bet ya that they would of done somethin’ about her already” Hawk chimed in, making most of the room jump a little. Apparently, his presence had slipped the minds of the other people in the room.  
“That too.” Russet agreed.  
There was an awkward pause as all present parties tried to think of a way forward, but none had anything to say.  


That was until Vlad chimed in from his spot on the stairs.  
“if I may?” he waited till the other occupants of the room had all nodded “why don’t you keep little Alex here on the low, until all the paperwork and such is sorted, and in the meantime, see if we can track her origins. Children are not just willed into existence after all.”  
There was a smattering of laughter at Vlad’s last comment, and Alex finally looked up from hawks hands, and started to extract herself from His lap. Apparently she needed to pee. Hawk followed her up the stairs to keep an eye on her, and to grab some things from his room, leaving Vlad, Numair and the 3 Generals to plot out the best next course of action. By the time he had come back down stairs, Alex hopping down in his wake, 3 things had been agreed on;  
1: it would be safer for Alex to stay with Hawk and Vlad until things where sorted out in Atheri.  
2: tracking down Alex’s origins would be a good idea, to try and at least tie up some loose ends.  
3: Hawk and Numair better get started on making their relationship public, preferably after Alex was legally Numair’s on paper.  


Hawk had a good idea about exactly how much paperwork was coming Numair’s way, and made a mental note to stock up on the rather strong tea blend that he knew the cynn loved for its rich taste and high caffeine level. It was going to be needed in the coming week alone.  
The next big thing was to try and get the rest of Alex’s medical sorted out, and to see where she was education wise.  
Alex was still not letting anyone look at her teeth, and Hawk had twigged that she was rubbing her jaw a lot that morning, so the moment that Russet and her escort left ( to kickstart proceedings from the Athenian side, Cynn’s orders.) He hopped on the phone to Dr Felix and booked Alex an appointment for the following Monday. If there was any problems, it would be wiser to get things nipped in the bud. Vlad, in the meantime, put a call in to a couple of his work colleges at the university, to see if there was anywhere that they could take her for an assessment, in both English and Atherian (“got to cover all the bases hun!”) soon, if possible.  
An hour later, one such assessment was booked for the next day.  
“they run things like that on a Sunday?” Numair asked.  
“yup. At midday, so we have time to get someone" Vlad motioned to Alex, who was trying to use one of Hawks primary feathers to colour in one of her books, much to his amusement, “through the hub. Hopefully the gate guards will not give us too much grief.”  
“Wull, if they do, we can raise them someone who knows the laws better then they do.” Numair looked pleased, and not at all smug at Hawks statement, but then got a slightly worried look on his face.  
“I … should get back to the palace. Odds are that people have noticed my absence by now.”  
“by people you mean Helly.”  
“yes.”  
“and my sister, if Helly sent her to find you.”  
“yes.”  
“which Ne most likely did, considering her Cynn finding skills.”  
“also, yes.” Numair looked slightly put out as He reluctantly got up, stretching and batting some stray dust off his clothing as he did.  
..  


Hawk followed Numair out to the bus stop across the street.  
The two of them sat together in the damp warmth that was a summers day after a rainstorm, and tried to make sense of the past day and a bit, well, any more sense of the last day and a bit. The last day and a bit did not make any sort of sense.  
But they were trying.  
Admittedly, hawk kept getting pulled from the conversation by the sight of Alex sitting just inside the doorway of Vlads house, sitting cross legged, and pouting because he had told her to stay inside.  


He did not trust her road sense just yet.  


The Bus heading into the centre of town pulled in to the stop after a ten minuet wait, and the two of them shared a brief hug and a couple of reassuring words, before Numair alighted the bus and started his trip back to Atheri.  
Hawk watched the bus go, and looked back to the porch. Alex was now sitting on the threshold, half inside and half outside the house, looking rather smug as she did so. He could just about hear Vlad giggling from somewhere behind her.  
Hawk shook his head in amusement and scooped her up and trundled inside.  
It was hard to be mad at her, after all. He had told her to keep her butt indoors, and sitting to the threshold the way she had been meant that her butt had not, in fact, left the house.  


Numair’s little girl was turning out to be just as good as her father at finding loopholes, and that was liable to keep him on his toes for a long time coming and truth be told, Hawk was looking forward to it.


	8. a new world

Chapter 8: a new world

It was to Hawk and Vlad’s great relief that the gate guards on duty the next day where in a cooperative mood. Once the duo of spirits on duty had checked all required paperwork (which included some temporary travel and identity documents for Alex, rush ordered courtesy of RIT) they were ushered through the gate to Atheri in record time. The fact that most of the guards knew Vlad by name, or at least by reputation, and that Hawk was in full uniform probably helped things along a little bit.

Alex’s look of awestruck wonder when the three of them emerged out onto the street outside was well worth the hassle it had been to get her up and out of the house at the crack of dawn. Sundays (or the Atherian equivalent) were market days in Escalus, so the streets around the interworld exchange was already humming with life, both with people on the side walk, and a wide range of wagons and mounts in the roads. 

In particular, Alex’s eyes were drawn up to the huge statue that took up the middle of the plaza in front of them. She tugged of hawks sleeve to get his attention, and pointed up to the towering marble statue with a inquisitive look on her face. “hum? Oh, you wanna know who that is?” Alex nodded as they stopped at the bus stop directly in front of the statue. “that’s Russi, one of the founders, right Vlad?” Vlad glanced up from his phone with a small start. His morning coffee had not quite kicked in yet. But once the question had fully register a moment later, he grinned and entered what his friends jokingly called his ‘teacher mode’. As they waited for the bus, Vlad launched into a shortened, child friendly-ish telling of the founding of modern Atheri. He spoke about the old city, the trees, the big scary spirit eaters in said trees, the big friendly reifa and what happened to it all when the war hit.

He was mid way through telling the story of the founding family of Atheri when one of the city’s luminous fish shaped busses pulled up to the stop, and they embarked on the next leg of their journey over to the university Hospital. Vlad continued the history lesson most of the trip, until the bus pulled in to Escala’s plaza, Hawk picked Alex up and the three of them were engulfed in the bustling crowds attending the huge market that clustered around the statue’s feet. Hawk did not dare to put Alex down until they clear of most of the crowds, since hawk was very sure that they were in high danger of losing her in the hussle and bussle.

That, and He was pretty sure that she would bolt off in the direction of the first Laar that she spotted.

The aria around the university was quieter, no classes were running that day, but the library still had clusters of students clustered around, taking the opportunity of a warm summers day to get in some last minuet studying within walking distance of some really good smelling food stalls. Hawk had to admit that the crape stand in particular had caught his eye, and his nose as they passed. As they skirted around Ubus’s feet, couple of the studding students called out greetings in a smattering of different languages to Vlad as they passed, clearly recognising him from classes and about the place and some of the faculty waved to them from the staff apartments. 

The university Hospital was part of the university campus.

It was, in Hawks opinion, this hospital was somewhat different, somewhat the same as the one back in the archipelago, but with more magic and no tv in the waiting aria. And most of the books available where in multiple languages. Not that Hawk could read half of them with any clarity anyway. The slightly older, red haired spirit, Dr Mallisi, made them feel right at home in their office. They were friendly, and chattered away to Alex as they conducted the language/learning assessment, 

Testing to see at what level her reading/writing/maths was at. Since she was still mostly non-verbal, the speech part of the test was skipped for now.

“there’s no point in trying to force them to do something that she dose not want to do. It would probably case more damage them good.” They stated as they went through the test results with Hawk and Vlad.  
“apart from that, her reading and writing is at the level one would expect for a child there age in both Atherian and English, mathematics is lower than average tho, but not to a concerning level. All in all, they are a very bright child.”  
All eyes drifted to Alex, who was playing on the floor next to the chair Hawk was sitting on, making a small clay laar jump over a some reed and wood fences, completely oblivious to her surroundings.   
“very bright, and very lucky.” Vlad agreed.

-

They left the hospital with some work books for Alex, a copy of the assessment for RIT records, and a list of suggested next steps. It was a given that Alex was not going to go into mainstream school any time soon, but Dr Mallisi had dug through there records and pulled up a list of tutors that they could recommend, all of which had prior experience working with both children and victims of the trade. Vlad apparently already knew one or two of them from his academic work. 

He had whittled down the list a little more.

They were just passing by Ubus again, Alex sitting high on his shoulders, and talking about all the tasty food that was on offer just up a head when hawk was blindsided by a flying tackle hug, courtesy of his little sister. His rather annoyed little sister.

“YOU NEVER CALL ME ABOUT ANYTHING YOU ASS!” she yelled up at him, gray eyes full of mock anger. “ANYTHING!” she chided, shacking her mop of brown hair “Really goofus. You brought me that construct for a reason you big dummy you.” Liya had received the over all story from Numair when she had ran into him the afternoon before, when she found him on Helly’s behalf, and was now clambering to know all the details. All of them. Starting with the fact that apparently she’s an aunt now? care to tell?

-

“…so ya keeping her?” “I thought that was obvious.” Hawk waved a bit of waffle at Liya, as they sat on the bourd walk running between the university campus and the great river that separated the city from the palace. After Liya’s flying introduction, and some apologies to both Vlad (who had been knocked over as she lunged at Hawk) and Alex (who had been badly startled by the whole affair) the 4 of them had hit the market foodstalls and had dragged the resulting banquet over to the riverside to eat in relative peace and quiet.

“wull, Is shorty keepin’ her?” Liya pressed on, brandishing a sausage right back at him. “I mean, some people an’t gonna be too happy” “Those people are never happy.” Vlad pointed out between bites of spicy fishcake. They all knew who ‘those people’ were. Alex was still a little unsure of Liya, but was more than happy to try to swipe bites of Hawks food reaching over and trying to snag bits of waffle with the little wooden fork that had come with her own waffle (which she had decimated the moment that they had sat down).

Any reply that was to be had, was cut off by Vlad’s phone playing a upbeat jingle. A second later, Vlad fished his phone out of his bag and checked the caller id. Vlad then suddenly looked very, very concerned. “ah, hello?” The conversation was hushed, fast, and judging by Vlad’s increasingly worried expression, not good news. “Vlad? What’s wrong?” Liya asked, voice wavering slightly, looking worried as Vlad hug up the call and took a deep breath. “someone… someone told. They know.” “wha… who?” Hawk was already on His feet in alarm. “Fiaqra…. And the rest of the assembly..” “wull. Shit.”


	9. Leaks and patches

Chapter 9: leaks and patches

“ so any clue to who told?”  
Hawk sounded way to tired for the time of day. The moment that vlad had relayed the news (“its been less than two sodding days! Really??”) the small group had dropped everything and retreated to a safe zone, or the safeist zone that they could find.  
In this case a small, dim, second floor café, a street away from Cruppa and Shuul’s statue. The place was run by a spirit/tengu couple who were part of the Du cruppa, and was a common meet up point for both Du Cruppa/RIT operatives in need of a quiet place to plan and exchange information over some pretty good food.  
Needless to say, anyone who would want to Harm little Alex would have a fun time trying to get to her in here.  
Hawk had to wonder if the wispy dark skinned spirit behind the counter could actually operate what could only be describe as a mini siege ballista that was hanging on the wall behind them. “no. stinking. Clue.” Russit grumbled, hunched over her mug of coffee “all I know is that Numair’s family is livid, Numair is panicking and we have an information breach somewhere.”  
“just panicking?” Vlad asked, cocking an eyebrow  
“oh ok, He’s hiding somewhere in the palace, and the only reason we know he’s still alive is because he took his dammed construct with him this time and is keeping is posted, happy?” 

Hawk left Vlad and Russit to their bickering on one side of the cafe and gently walked over to were Liya was bonding with her niece over one of the colouring books that had been packed for the trip and some atherian style biscuits (not the same thing as cookies, but quite close.)  
Liya looked up long enough to flash him a smile, and to motion too a scribble of the page in front of Alex, before quickly going back to guarding her stash of treats. Alex was back on the scrounge after eating her own.  
The scribble in question looked a bit like hawk. If you squinted, and tilted you head a little to the left.  
Hawks happy little smile fell as he saw Alex rubbing her jaw again, clearly in some discomfort. It was becoming increasingly clear that something was causing her pain, and that something was not going away any time soon.  
Thinking quickly, Hawk turned to his sister.  
“hey, Liya? Have you shown Alex your little party trick yet?”  
“party trick?” Liya kitted her brows together in confusion.  
“the _glowie _one?”__  
“the glowie… oh, ohhhhh. Hey Alex, watch this!”  
Hawk plonked himself down next to Alex as she watched in wonder as Liya lit up her nerves with her Icey blue healing magic.  
“see, cool right?” Alex nodded, eyes wide in awe.  
“annnd, I can make you glow too, like this!” Liya very gently touched Alex on the arm, lighting up the bones in Alex’s forearm. A silent prompt from Hawk later, and Alex’s whole skeleton was glowing, making the child to giggle and poke at her skin in wonder.  
Liya could not keep up the light show for long, but it was long enough to spot the problem. 

__-_ _

__“So her new teeth are not coming through properly?” Vlad looked concerned.__  
“yeh, can’t really tell why, but it’s a start. I’m hoping that Felix and co will be able to give yall more answers tomorrow.”  
“If not, then perhaps Heligen could help. they must of encountered this before.”  
Liya scratched her head and shrugged a little as they trotted along at a brisk pace down the side walk. A quick round of phone calls, and a chat over the phone with Numair (who was on his way to anywhere but his office) had led to a small pack of Du Cruppa, some in uniform and some not, guarding and escorting hawk, Liya, Vlad and Alex as far as the interworld hub, working as a team to keep any one that could be a threat way from the small group, but with out bringing attention to themselves, or the people they were guarding.  
Hawk would class it as creepy if they were not of his side.  
They ran into a very flustered Numair a block away from the hub.  
He was slightly bogged down by what looked to be a good chunk of his office packed into a couple of bags (one of which was Hawks, and nearly half his height). Sraddi chimed from another, informing Numair that he had yet another message from what sounded like his uncle. It would be almost comical if it was not for the look of pure panic on his face. 

__

__Hawk and Vlad took some bags each and they ran the last block to the hub, stopping only to thank the du cruppa, and to say good bye to Liya and to promise to keep her and Helly updated, and to tell her to tell Yoshi to stop by next week when she come over for her monthly check up at Felix’s clinic.__  
Then they very calmly, very, very non suspiciously walked trough the gate back to Edonia .  
And promptly started to run again once they were outside the building on the other side. 

__-_ _

__Numair, as it turned out, had used the tunnels that ran from the palace sub-sub basements, under the river to get the hell out of dodge, and had popped up near the university. Years of sneaking out had led to him knowing the city quite well, so once he had his bearings, he had tanked up on his medication, and booked it as fast as he could with bags of things he did not want certain people finding. Like photos of him and Hawk, and Alex’s filled out adoption form.  
Important things. _ _

__-_ _

__The bus ride back to Vlad’s was spent running options, and plotting what came next.__  
The one big blessing that they all had was that despite everything, Numair’s family did not know that Hawk existed outside of being a member of RIT, or more importantly, where he lived.  
Small miracles. Small miracles.  
Numair dropped his bags in the living room and flopped onto couch. Vlad sat warily next to him with the look of someone who had flat out had enough today, and was completely done. Hawk shared the sentiment whole heartedly as he slumped into the armchair.  
Alex looked at the 3 adults draped dramatically over the 3 piece suite and decided to join them, flopping over the arm of the sofa, pulling a face as she did. Jannis joined them shortly, hopping into Vlad’s lap, meowing. Vlad petted her absentmindedly as he stared into nothing.  
It had been one hell of a day. Both in terms of midsummer temperature and events.  
But they were safe for now. They really needed to figure out what was going to happen next. But first, rest, cold drinks and a change of clothing was really needed.  
And a shower. Yeh, that was needed too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS ALIVE! ALIVE I TELL YOOOOOOOU.  
> who wants to hug the Cynn? He needs a hug.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever attempt at fanfiction, so ... yay?  
> world and characters are from the long form webcomic White Noise : http://www.white-noise-comic.com/


End file.
